Introduction

Abstract Metaphor research has witnessed tremendous changes in how metaphor is seen and understood. Traditionally, metaphor has been viewed as a special, creative, and noticeable use of language. Lakoff and Johnson’s Conceptual Metaphor Theory ( 1980 ) has marked a cognitive revolution by viewing metaphor as pervasive in language as well as fundamental to thought and action. More recently, the discourse revolution has re-emphasised metaphor’s manifestations in language and its function in communication. A methodological revolution has brought forth procedures to identify and analyse metaphor in naturally occurring data (such as MIP and MIPVU). Despite these advances, in the present introduction, we identify four challenges that we believe metaphor researchers are still faced with: (1) How metaphorical are metaphors? (2) whose metaphor is it anyway? (3) metaphor research needs more diversity; and (4) how to study metaphor empirically – qualitatively or quantitatively? We conclude by presenting outlines of the contributions and specify how they address these issues.